Book and media

Leaving a Legacy 

Philip Diller 

Cincinnati, OH, University of Cincinnati Press, 2019, 271 pp., 

$34.95, hardcover 

Leaving a Legacy

 is a 

collection of excerpts 

from various writ-

ings of Dr Daniel 

Drake (1785-1852), 

a physician who 

lived and worked in 

and around Cincin-

nati, Ohio, attended 

medical school at the 

University of Penn-

sylvania, and played 

not only a pivotal 

role in shaping Cincinnati, Ohio, but also a 

more subtle role in shaping modern medicine. 

Each passage in the volume is chosen for its 

specific message from Daniel Drake to his chil-

dren, his fellow citizens, his colleagues, and the 

world. The passages are all followed by ques-

tions formulated and put forth by Dr Diller 

and designed to help the reader digest, ponder, 

and then imagine how they might apply each 

piece of Drakean wisdom in their own lives to 

improve themselves, their families, and their 

communities. The book is organized into five 

main parts focused on Dr Drake the man, citi-

zen, writer, educator, and physician. 

Raised in Ohio, Philip Diller, MD, PhD, is an 

avid medical historian and family doctor. It is 

clear that he believes a good physician is also a 

good citizen of the world, and his love for both 

medical history and community involvement is 

evident in his writing, as is his devout interest 

in the details of Dr Drake’s life and teaching.

Dr Drake was born into a working-class 

farming family and grew up being only inter-

mittently able to attend school. However, it 

was his father‘s lifelong dream for him to be-

come a doctor, and at the age of 18 he was sent 

out into the world to become a doctor’s appren-

tice. This would be his launching point onto the 

long, winding road of becoming a physician for 

both individual patients and families and com-

munities. Dr Drake left Ohio to be trained at a 

world-renowned institution, but quickly found 

his way back to his Ohio roots and home soon 

after graduating. 

This is certainly not a high-yield book; it is 

not a page turner. This book is not a compre-

hensive biography of Dr Daniel Drake, nor is 

it a comprehensive description of medicine in 

the 1800s, or of life in the 1800s in Cincinnati, 

Ohio. Rather, it is a collection of life lessons on 

how to be a good physician and an exemplary 

citizen, that will endure over the centuries, 

and can be passed on from generation to gen-

eration of physicians, teachers, and historians.

Two examples of Drake’s writings that are 

still applicable today are his thoughts on the 

importance of the physician’s place in their 

community, and his advocating for the role of 

communities in taking care of immigrants:

Medicine is a physical science, but a social pro-

fession. What skeletons are to the comparative 

anatomist, and plants to the botanist, people in 

health and disease are to the physician. Both 

his elementary studies and his after duties are 

prosecuted in their midst, and can be pursued 

no where else. He may be in feeling a cynic, or 

in taste a recluse, but practically, he must be 

ever present among the masses, acting, and 

being reacted on by them. Thus, per necessi-

tatem, he is made a member of the community 

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